As moms, we all want our child to succeed and progress in their development – but sometimes well-meaning people place an undue amount of pressure onto our children.
Whether your child is “delayed” in walking (by some arbitrary standards) or hasn’t uttered more than a few words (when a peer their age is speaking dozens of words), many moms can wrongly think something is “wrong” with their child.
But the truth is, every child develops differently – and developmental guidelines are always changing. So before you become worried – there’s one thing you must remember.
Stop comparing your children to other children – and let your kid be a kid!
It can be tempting and hard not to compare the progress of your child to another, especially when it feels like other moms are judging you for the choices you make for your child.
Each mom is doing the best they can to make the best decisions for their family and different moms have different approaches.
Some parents are quick to throw their child into physical therapy if they aren’t crawling or walking soon enough – while others know their child will crawl or walk when they are ready.
Other moms insist their child must start seeing a speech pathologist – while some moms keep reading to their child each day – working on words with them.
This isn’t saying specialists are bad or never needed – the problem is many moms think their child must follow some special “guideline” to develop – and if they are not meeting certain “milestones” by a specific time, they are somehow behind.
But this isn’t true.
Nobody knows your child better than you do – so have confidence in the fact that YOU are your child’s best advocate – not the “professionals.”
And besides – by worrying and becoming anxious – you are missing out on the most precious moments of today.
As The EveryMom said so well:
“Getting caught up in when your child will hit their next milestone can take away the joy and happiness of the everyday moments happening right now.
Instead of wasting your worry on how your baby compares to their friend/cousin/sibling, why not focus on how happy they are and what they are accomplishing today?”.
Amen!
In fact, if you have multiple children – you know firsthand how different they all are!
Perhaps one crawled sooner than another or began eating solids faster than another – but years down the road they’re all perfectly healthy and growing at their own pace.
A developing child shouldn’t feel pressured or rushed to meet some arbitrary goal.
And meeting “milestones” shouldn’t be a competition between children.
Of course – if you notice something unusually off in your child, trust your motherly instincts!
But don’t fall prey to thinking there’s something wrong with your child if they aren’t walking at 12 months – or only have 4 teeth at 13 months.
Instead, celebrate your child for who they are – and rejoice with them as they continue to grow and achieve new things in life!
Please take a moment to forward this article on to your family and friends and let them know they can sign up to receive our newsletter directly to their inbox by clicking here!
